I'm not sure about Vegan Planet, but I've made quite a few sweet things from 1000 Vegan Recipes, and my advice is to be careful about the amounts of sweetener Robin uses. I tend to cut way back on the sugar. She likes her sweets pretty sweet.

I was wondering about buying 1000 Vegan Recipes. In the (almost) year & a half since I transitioned over from vegetarian to vegan, I've bought 20 cookbooks. I love the themed books, but thought I need a couple of big, comprehensive tomes too. I bought Big Vegan & love it, but the recipes are so creative & diverse, they still require special trips to the shops to gather ingredients. I thought 1000VR might fill that void of plain, quick to make dishes that you can pretty much just use what you have on hand to make. It would be nice to have a book that you can refer to when you happen to have a bunch of spinach (or something), & the index refers you to lots of options. Any opinions whether 1000 Vegan Recipes would fit the bill?

I stumbled onto the recipe for soy-tan cutlets from 1000VR & they're great! A super-quick seitan solution when you don't want to bother baking or steaming. This is the kind of thing I mean - practical, quick, basic recipes that you can refer to when you don't have time to spend shopping or cooking elaborate dishes.

The comments regarding blandness seem valid. I have Fire & Spice & have to say, not very fiery or spicy at all! But I don't mind that too much, as long as the flavour profile is there, I can up the heat myself.

I have Robin's party vegan, quick fix vegan, and meat & potato vegetarian cookbook (it has vegan options in all recipes) and love all three.

i just checked 1000VR out of the library and i look forward to making some time to flip through the book and check out the recipes. admittedly, the sheer size of the cookbook kinda turns me off. i don't mean to intentionally get this thread off topic, but since you said you've bought 20 new cookbooks since you made your vegan transition i'd love to know some of your favorite ones. i have the 3 i mentioned above, along with vegan diner and vegan sandwiches save the day. i also have a couple of vegetarian cookbooks that have vegan options like cookouts veggie style by jolinda hackett (so fun!).

that is so weird that fire & spice, at least your to your palate is not fiery or spicey, that was the reason i didn't buy it! maybe it's worth looking into ;)

p.s. people also seem to suggest 'veganomicon' as a good cookbook tomb to have as well ;)

_________________"....but I finally found block tempeh a few weeks ago with the intent to give it my virginity." -Moon

I was looking at Party Vegan & thinking that might be a good one to get pre-holidays. My next purchase is definitely going to be Vegan Eats World - I'm really looking forward to that one - & probably 100VR. If you like Robin's books, I'm sure you'd like Fire & Spice - you can always make adjustments if you find the recipes too hot for you, but honestly, they're more spicy than hot on the whole. I like that the recipes are grouped by region (much like The Ethnic Vegetarian).

Of the books I've bought so far, my favourite 5 would be Viva Vegan, Vegan Diner, The Joy of Vegan Baking, World Vegan Feast & The Ethnic Vegetarian (not entirely vegan, but at least 90%). I haven't cooked much from Big Vegan, but I think that's shaping up to be well-used too. I have Veganomicon, it was one of the first books I bought, & of course it's very very popular & justifiably so, but I find that whenever I reach for it to find something to cook for dinner, I end up deciding on a recipe from another book. I don't know why, because everything I've made from it has been a success & the quality of the recipes is very good. I think it might just be the book's layout (WVF is a bit cramped like that too)? Also, I wouldn't really call it a definitive tome, although there is a lot of choice for sure. I'd love to be able to pick up a book, flick to a random recipe & make it, but I'm on an economy drive at the moment, so my choices are dictated by what's cheap & seasonal at the market - hence the desire for a great big book with a great big index that offers lots of options without too many unusual ingredients!

and yes, vegan eats world, also has caught my eye as well. i have vegan diner too, my hubby is addicted to those vegan choc chip cookies and whenever he gets leary of me making some type of vegan sweet treat, i gently remind him of how much he loves the vegan cookies ;)

and while i haven't flipped through Veganomicon, I do agree with you that cookbook layout is very important. I adore a well organized cookbook. I strongly prefer a full table of contents with all recipes listed under each chapter heading. If not, then I definitely want a list of recipes at each chapter page. I know indexes are handy, but I've actually turned down buying a couple of cookbooks because there weren't organized to how I preferred. I know 'vegan crunk' by Bianca is not organized this way, but I'm willing to compromise to get my hands of her hot new cookbook!

And I'm also trying to stay in season now too and buy more locally grown produce. It's a challenge sometimes but it's exciting to be eating food in season and/or looking forward to seeing new items pop up at the market and/or natural foods store. Of course I still buy some produce at the grocery store since I'm on a budget too.

_________________"....but I finally found block tempeh a few weeks ago with the intent to give it my virginity." -Moon

just in case anyone here doesn't have vegan planet yet, there are 3 copies up for grabs (along with 3 copies of fast from the vegan slow cooker and 1 copy of vegan sandwiches) in my gaming group's raffle to benefit child's play. (we're nowhere close to our goal, so even if you donate $1, you'll have a very good chance of winning one of the 3 sets.)http://www.8bitbrigade.com/ChildsPlay2012

-Spinach, white bean and pine nut strudel - got lots of compliments from skeptical omnis when I served this at a holiday meal-Potato and artichoke stuffed portobello mushrooms-Baba ghanoush-Roasted cauliflower and rice salad with dijon vinaigrette (I cut back the oil a little and add 2-3 additional cups of cauliflower)

I bought it a few days ago & can't wait for it to arrive! I love the idea of a massive, comprehensive index with lots of options. The recipes I've seen on people's blogs look great (I'm in awe of anyone cooking through the entire book!). I didn't quite envision how big it actually is until I saw this pic... http://www.nomeatathlete.com/1000-vegan-recipes/

I bought it a few days ago & can't wait for it to arrive! I love the idea of a massive, comprehensive index with lots of options. The recipes I've seen on people's blogs look great (I'm in awe of anyone cooking through the entire book!). I didn't quite envision how big it actually is until I saw this pic... http://www.nomeatathlete.com/1000-vegan-recipes/

I really like 1000 Vegan Recipes. It's currently packed away since I moved recently, but once it's unpacked I'll try to come back here and list the recipes that I've enjoyed in the past. I tend to be drawn to the faster recipes and I like that they are labeled as fast.

I have Vegan Planet as well, but the one or two things I've made from there took me a while to make, so it hasn't gotten much use.

Love to hear about your faves LFL! My copy of 1000VR arrived today & I can already tell it's going to be well-used. My only peeves - of course, as usual, I want colour pics, but also, I find it really frustrating & totally unnecessary that the page numbers aren't given beside the recipes on the chapter title pages. Considering it's such a big book, anything to make it easy to navigate would have been good. Besides that, I'm loving how comprehensive it is (a whole section of potato salads!) - it's going to come in so handy.

Love to hear about your faves LFL! My copy of 1000VR arrived today & I can already tell it's going to be well-used. My only peeves - of course, as usual, I want colour pics, but also, I find it really frustrating & totally unnecessary that the page numbers aren't given beside the recipes on the chapter title pages. Considering it's such a big book, anything to make it easy to navigate would have been good. Besides that, I'm loving how comprehensive it is (a whole section of potato salads!) - it's going to come in so handy.

yeah, it was a bit frustrating there weren't page numbers to go along with the recipe titles. the book was just way way way way to overwhelming for me. i know you haven't had the cookbook long, but have any specific recipes caught you eye as must-tries?

_________________"....but I finally found block tempeh a few weeks ago with the intent to give it my virginity." -Moon

My copy of 1000 Vegan Recipes is still packed but I downloaded a kindle sample so I could look at the table of contents and see if the recipe names alone would be enough to remind me which ones I've made and what my favorites are.

First, I'll say that I narrowed my choices by focusing mostly on the fast recipes (denoted with a little round F icon both in the recipe and in the table of contents). It''s still a lot to choose from, although less overwhelming. Here's what I remember making:

Savory Artichoke Squares -- I thought these were pretty good, and my husband liked them even more

Three Alarm Potato Salad (I cut down on the heat some) -- Pretty good but I only made it once

White Bean and Broccoli Salad with Parsley-Walnut Pesto -- We loved it and made it at least a few times

Tuscan White Bans and Broccoli Rabe -- This was amazing, and so quick to make!

Edamame Donburi -- Very good

Yellow Dal with Spinach -- Also very good ( pressure cooked the legumes to save time)

Tofu with Pistachio-Pomegranate Sauce -- good

Soy-Tan Dream Cutlets -- really good considering that I'm not so into seitan

Tempeh and Vegetable Stir-Fry - Liked it a lot. I skipped the Tempeh steaming step to save time.

I know I've made some of the other recipes, especially the pasta recipes and the Asian tofu and tempeh recipes, but without looking at the actual recipes to jog my memory I can't be sure which ones. Hope this helps!

Wow thanks LFL! Sounds like some of those recipes might be a good place to start. I've made the Soy-tan cutlets & loved them - a lot quicker than regular seitan, & although dense & chewy, not rubbery. I've made them a few times & it's a recipe I'll keep going back to.

bookwormbethie wrote:

i know you haven't had the cookbook long, but have any specific recipes caught you eye as must-tries?

I haven't had a lot of time this week to really take a good look, but I shall report back once I've tried a few things!

What I love about this book is that even seemingly simple, familiar sounding recipes often have some kind of a twist that makes them more interesting & creative. And so much choice! I fancied some mushroom pate the other day & made one of the recipes (love that there's more than one option!), which was actually quite different to any of the zillions of mushroom pates I've had over the years. Seemingly simply & straight forward, but really good! I also made a broccoli & walnut salad the other day that was so delicious I made it again a couple of days later (that dressing!!). I wish I could remember what else I've made, I'll have to go through & list them. I've been so impressed so far. Love how everything's fresh, vibrant & colourful - not too stodgy.

I really want this book. (1000 vegan recipes) :) I like huge tomes because usually what I do is that I just do a flip page test and stop when my roommate says stop. :) Robin's been giving away these for a while, so i am hoping to win one. I do want Vegetarian Meat and potatoes.